Shafaq News/ Seventeen years ago the road from Abu Ghraib through Fallujah to Ramadi was among the most dangerous real estate in Iraq.

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published a report in the National Interest starting by narrating how Ramadi and Fallujah looked like “Hiroshima”.

“On Feb. 12, 2004, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy transporting John Abizaid, then-commander of U.S. Central Command, and Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, in Fallujah.” He said.

“Later that month, insurgents attacked three police stations simultaneously and freed close to one hundred prisoners. By March 2004, insurgents were cementing control over Fallujah. Attacks on U.S. and allied Iraqi forces became a near-daily occurrence both in the city, in nearby Habbaniyah, and in the provincial capital Ramadi.”

“On March 31, 2004, insurgents ambushed a Blackwater convoy, set their bodies ablaze, dragged their corpses through the streets, and hung their charred remains from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River. One week later, U.S. forces besieged the city.

Twenty-four days later, U.S. Marine General James Conway lifted the siege and transferred power to the so-called Fallujah Brigade. It did not work. During the siege, there were five bombings; in the weeks that followed, there were thirty. By the end of the year, the U.S. military was back. Fallujah was leveled. “It was like Hiroshima” one resident explained to me over tea yesterday. Tragedy was not over. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, The Islamic State (ISIS) insurgency took control of the province and terrorized local residents. As that group fell, locals skirmished with Iranian-backed factions.” He added.

Rubin said Today, Fallujah and Ramadi are almost unrecognizable; they underwent a transformation, “the roads connecting them are among the best in Iraq. Municipal workers carefully manicure parks, water flowers growing in public areas, and collect trash. Businesses spring up almost every day. Residents have rebuilt their houses. Local universities are thriving and Ramadi residents brag about how their city will soon host one of Iraq’s first truly five-star hotels. Iraqis well beyond the region acknowledge that al-Anbar is Iraq’s most secure region after Iraqi Kurdistan and is fast catching up. “

According to the scholar, “Residents of Anbar brag—rightly—that they have achieved their renaissance with little outside help. The Iraqi government remains stymied by its own bureaucracy, incompetence, and a lack of cash. The size of Iraq’s payroll has long been inversely proportional to services provided. Many credit both their governor Ali Farhan al-Dulaimi as well as the province’s tribal and business elites for banding together and doing what Baghdad could not or would not. Local government and local will matters. While Ramadi and Fallujah today shine, much of Mosul remains in ruins, its former governor arrested last year for his role in a multimillion-dollar corruption and embezzlement scheme.”